AI Set to Transform Production Industry, Mip London Panel Says: ‘This Is the Most Exciting Time in TV History'
In a spirited panel discussion at Mip London, leading production executives shared insights on how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming content creation while highlighting opportunities for independent producers to gain competitive advantages over traditional studios.
Jason Mitchell, founder of The Connected Set, demonstrated Storyboarder.ai, a $50-per-month animation tool that converts scripts into storyboards through generative AI. 'What it's going to do here is basically turn your script into a storyboard that you could then give to your human animator, although their product roadmap is to eventually do the animation in the product itself,' Mitchell explained.
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Eline Van Der Velden, CEO of Particle6, revealed her company is taking AI implementation even further. 'We're starting to generate short films completely using AI… everything from synthetic humans. We're talking drama series completely in AI,' she said, adding that production costs are being reduced by up to 90% compared to traditional methods.
Avi Armoza, CEO of Armoza Formats, pointed to economic pressures driving adoption. 'There is less and less money for production and everybody is looking to do shows in a more cost-effective way,' he said, mentioning how his company's game show 'Family Piggy Bank' utilizes CGI for its set. 'We have the show 'Family Piggy Bank' with all the sets based on CGI. Then it's easy to also generate post production with AI.'
The panelists expressed optimism about AI enabling small production companies to challenge industry giants. 'This is the most exciting time in TV history that I've been alive for, because the traditional ones, like BBC Studios, Universal, Disney – because they are ring fenced and they have to have all these enterprise agreements – they cannot do what we're doing as small indies,' Van Der Velden said. 'It is the time for small companies to take over and become the next big studio.'
Mitchell highlighted ongoing resistance from broadcasters regarding AI in live productions. 'We're definitely not using them in live productions, because, frankly, broadcasters just freak out if you want to include it in a production at the moment,' he said, suggesting AI is currently more accepted in development and post-production phases.
On potential job displacement, opinions differed. Armoza predicted fewer staff would be needed in certain roles, providing the example of writing room personnel potentially reducing from 10 to 2-3. Meanwhile, Mitchell maintained that AI would ultimately create more opportunities: 'There's almost like an infinite amount of content we can put out there… so I still think there was a lot of opportunity for people working in the content industry. I don't think we're going to cut roles overall.'
Regarding intellectual property concerns, Mitchell dismissed fears about AI-generated content ownership: 'The amount of prompts that go into making a new piece of content, there's so much work and creativity in it. I just don't think you could say it's the computer that did the work.'
The panel concluded with all speakers emphasizing that production companies should embrace AI now to gain competitive advantages. 'For us, more veterans [in the] industry, we were lucky to live in a time where creation and creativity and format was on the rise. Now it's kind of going down,' said Armoza. 'I think the AI is our opportunity to shift the curve again and be on the upside.'
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